The Foundry

Neighborhood: North Park

2859 University Ave.
San Diego, CA 92104
(619) 293-3332

Hours: Mon. - Sat., 5 -11 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.

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Buzz about The Foundry

  • eh
  • don't like it

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aunderscorek wrote about The Foundry

Pretty bummed about this one. Going in, the attitude was awesome, by which I mean it was humble and unassuming and unpretentious about it. It's a breath of fresh air to see a bar serving craft beer without being to the exclusion of people who aren't afficionadoes, which is to say that they also unashamedly served macro brews, domestic and import. In San Diego, where everyone is a beer expert, sometimes it's nice to take a step back and stop overthinking things.

We started with the potstickers, which were pretty good, and served crispy, as opposed to the usual gummy and steamed state. Not bad potstickers.

Moving on, we ordered the breakfast pizza. With tater tots, bacon, and over-easy egg, how could we not? We'd heard good things about it too, which is why we didn't all go for the pho (we didn't get to it, this trip). And then it came out and we dug in and it was like, whaaaa? How do you undercook a thin crust? It was downright doughy. Not even just a little, but pretty doughy. And then the bland, Ragu-style marinara that was thrown on there dispassionately brought the rest of the pizza down with it as well. Spot-saucing the pie with Hollandaise could've been more fun, but really anything would have been more fun than just a thin coating of marinara everywhere to dumb down an otherwise great concept.

We also ordered the "Porky" sandwich, with porkbelly (who can resist?! WHO!?) and apple slaw. It was a good sandwich, and apple slaw has a great ability to cut through almost anything with a little green apple tang and zip. It went over well, as did the tots on the side; nothing crazy, just good.

Then we saw that there were taco specials... ahhh what the hell. We got one each, me the lamb, another the duck, Miss Lady the veggie, another the yellowtail. For some reason, they were all brought to our table cold. Already kind of a dealbreaker. These are tacos... it shouldn't be rocket science. Serving them warm is Tacos 101. And after that, I don't know if there's anything else worth saying about the tacos.

So while the beer selection, the service, and the atmosphere was inviting and even charming, some of the menu moves made me wonder what could have been. Maybe we should have gone with the pho, but if the breakfast pizza is what gets the raves from customers, that shouldn't have been as great a disappointment as it was, which leads me to be more pessimistic about their pho than I would be otherwise.

posted on January 12, 2012

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The Buzz Snapshot

  • eh

    What exactly is 'eh?'

    Eh. I don’t feel strongly about it either way. I don’t hate it or love it, I wouldn’t recommend it or dismiss it, it just is.

  • don't like it
  • 1
  • 0